“Citizenship should be reserved for those who understand and are committed to American fundamental values, and who stand ready to follow in the footsteps of patriots. Anything less diminishes us and our precious gift of citizenship.”

So finishes Thomas Lifson discussing the threat illegal immigration poses to citizenship. The assault on citizenship is much broader however. There is pressure to confer citizenship rights on enemy combatants, both legal and illegal ones, particularly disturbing during time of war. There is a dilution of citizenship rights by judges looking to foreign law for guidance. Non-citizens, legal and illegal, are being treated to the same laws, rights and privileges as citizens. There are even certain citizens, called journalist, who are now granted super-citizenship exempting them from much of the responsibility of citizenship while granting them full rights and privileges.

Citizenship is under assault and it is time for Americans to defend what Mr. Lifson calls “our precious gift of citizenship.”